‘White Lotus' star talks Trump-voting character on the show, criticizes her own Trump-supporting family
"The White Lotus" star Carrie Coon admitted to "The View" on Friday that she does have friends and family who support President Donald Trump just like one of the characters on the popular HBO show.
During Friday's episode of the ABC talk show, the actress discussed her "White Lotus" co-star Leslie Bibb playing a Trump voter and noted that she also has Trump-supporting family members in real life. Coon went on to say they're now impossible to talk politics with because they follow an authoritarian.
"I had family members who voted for Trump. We're from Ohio. We had to have those conversations," she said when asked by co-host Ana Navarro if it's "actually possible to have friends who don't share your same beliefs."
A scene from the show went viral in March when Kate, played by Bibb, appears to reveal to her horrified best friends Laurie and Jaclyn, played by Coon and Michelle Monaghan, that she voted for Trump.
During the scene, Kate's friends – who assumed she was a Democrat – slowly get it out of her during dinner that she voted for Trump. After Kate admits her husband is a Republican, Laurie asks her outright if she supported him. She responds with a curt smile and a long pause before saying, "Are we really going to talk about Trump tonight?'' and quickly changing the subject.
Later that night, Kate sees her friends laughing and mocking her decision to vote for Trump.
After admitting that she has Trump-supporting friends, Coon suggested to "The View" co-hosts that those voters are brainwashed.
"I think there was a time when it was possible to have conversations about it," she said. "But when you're in an authoritarian slide it becomes a closed system. The leader is the source of information. That is not penetrable, so when you're inside of that circular information system, then it's very hard."
Several of the co-hosts nodded in agreement. Coon continued, saying Trump voters don't have much "basis in fact" any longer.
"It's very hard to talk about anything because there's no basis in fact. And now we're seeing the defunding of the NIH [National Institute of Health] and NSF [National Science Foundation]," she said, adding, "So, like, science which – I believe in science, and I don't think, there's not like a — there's no middle ground there."
Co-host Joy Behar followed up by asking if Americans will be shocked into seeing Trump's dark side because of the cuts he's made to government programs. Coon indicated she wasn't so sure.
"I think narrative is very powerful and it's very easy to teach them that they should blame immigrants or trans people while billionaires are picking their pockets," she declared.
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